This invention relates to means for and methods of detecting fraud, lack of credit, maintenance problems and the like during the making of a telephone call and more particularly to detecting failures, the act of fraud, exhaustion of credit, or the like, in the SS#7 system network, especially while a call is in progress and while corrective action may still be taken.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,570 is for Service Observing Equipment for use with the Signaling System Seven (xe2x80x9cSS#7xe2x80x9d) Telephone Networks. Service observing equipment provide means for monitoring a telephone network in order to determine the quality of service that is being given to the subscribers served by that network. The end product of the service observation equipment is Call Records and Report Summaries telling the management and maintenance personnel such things about the network as: how many calls went through which equipment, called, calling and charge numbers, the length of time required to perform the various call functions, the number and type of call failures, the location of congestion, flagrant dispositions, missing messages, calls of an excessive duration, premature cut offs, peak and overall link loading, and the like. From this information, the telephone company may acquire many advantages ranging from reports on routine maintenance, instant maintenance, planning future expansion, justifying billings and rate hikes, selling additional services, detection and prevention of fraud and the like.
In general the Network being monitored consists of a number of high speed, synchronous data links extending between switching transfer points (xe2x80x9cSTPxe2x80x9d) which enable switching points or end offices (xe2x80x9cSPxe2x80x9d) to communicate directly with each other, via special protocols, independently of the voice or other communication paths used by the subscriber.
More particularly, the calling office assembles certain required control, monitoring, and supervision information into data packets, each of which is identified by its own address assigned on a per call basis. The data packet also contains identifications of calling and called subscribers, types of calls, equipment, and other pertinent information relating to the call identified by the packet address or xe2x80x9crouting labelxe2x80x9d. A description of a data packet and the manner in which it is transmitted over data links has sometimes been likened to a letter and its journey through the mail. The data packet itself is similar to a letter in an envelope which is identified by a sender""s address and a recipient""s address. The envelope or packet may travel over any of many alternate paths guided by these addresses.
The observation equipment has a plurality of memory locations each being capable of storing data relative to a given data packet. For the duration of a call, these locations are assigned individual addresses corresponding to the pertinent data packet address. As the data packets are transmitted along the high speed data links, the service observation equipment decodes those packets having an address of interest and stores the decoded information in the pertinent memory location having each call""s address assigned to it. The progress of tones over the assigned audio communication channel are also monitored and corresponding data are also stored in the pertinent memory location.
After the receipt of the data packet indicating that a call has terminated, the data stored in the pertinent memory location for correlated data packets and related progress tones are read out to make appropriate service observation Reports and/or xe2x80x9cCall Recordsxe2x80x9d, for that call. The data may also be stored in a secondary memory for further report processing. Then, the emptied memory location is reassigned to accumulate data relative to a new packet address.
The Call Records and Summary Reports after the call is terminated are invaluable tools for giving a better grade of telephone service. However, they are after-the-fact tools and do little or nothing to correct problems while they are occurring. For example, if a person has a poor credit rating, the only options are either to suspend his telephone service or to allow his calls to go through. If the person with a poor credit rating makes an expensive call to a far-away country, he may run up an enormous bill, which prior xe2x80x9cin progressxe2x80x9d technology could only be detected after the call terminated. To illustrate correcting a problem while it is xe2x80x9cin progressxe2x80x9d, one option would be to allow such a person to talk for a few minutes and then either to cutoff the call or to switch it to a supervisor who could investigate the calling party.
A moments thought will bring to mind many other situations where it would be desirable for the telephone company to take suitable action while the call is in progress. For example, calls from an area frequented by drug dealers, criminals, and the like, may require different forms of action depending upon a profile of calls which are made by such people, xe2x80x9cin progressxe2x80x9d credit determinations for limited pre-paid services, etc. Other services which may be provided by the inventive system are:
Processes SS#7 data from links to capture subscriber entered digits and conduct real-time hot number or long duration call traps with or without audio recording for on-site or remote surveillance.
Monitors related audio trunks to create unified, comprehensive call detail records including Touch-Tone Customer Entered Digits for local or remote processing.
Classifies calls into disposition categories such as busy, don""t answer, no answer message, computer answer, switch blockage, call abandon, call complete etc.
Assigns audio and Touch-Tone receivers to detect secondary dial tones and dialed digits after an answer condition for preventing International Bypass and PBX Hacking.
Records and correlates the date and time; circuit number, called, calling and charge number; duration; point code, disposition; etc. plus secondary dial tones and all Customer Enter Digits (CED) after the xe2x80x9canswerxe2x80x9d message into a single output format.
Permits user created custom record formats with any specifically selected data fields for more efficient processing and multiple SS#7 applications.
Traps, stores and/or transmits calls immediately based on dialed digits before or after the answer message; calling or charge number; duration length or disposition.
Refilters stored Call Records by any combination of predefined record fields to pinpoint specific call detail patterns.
Correlates the voice circuit with SS#7 data to perform live audio surveillance while monitoring the real-time collection of call detail data.
Displays or prints calls in real-time, which match a called, calling or charge number and simultaneously activates a voice tape recorder.
Pre-programs studies to print locally on automatic schedule or upon exceeding thresholds or stores data in memory for remote polling or transmitting to host.
User friendly software with English language commands and help menus eliminate the need for technical expertise in SS#7.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide new and novel means for and methods of monitoring a telephone systems for the flexibility of taking different types of action while a call is in progress depending upon an observation of conditions during the call.
In keeping with an aspect of the invention, this and other objects are accomplished by using the same SS#7 Network connections and hardware that are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,570. An additional feature (called a xe2x80x9cZIP Recordxe2x80x9d) is generated from the SS#7 information packets. The term xe2x80x9cZIPxe2x80x9d is an acronym for xe2x80x9cZIP Information Packetxe2x80x9d. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,570, FIGS. 9A and 9B, it is consistent with the SS#7 symbology for each type of disposition to be identified by three letters or a combination of letters and numbers.
The xe2x80x9cCall Recordsxe2x80x9d are made after the termination of calls. The ZIP Record is somewhat like a stop motion, snap shot of the xe2x80x9cCall Recordxe2x80x9d which is made in real time before termination or a Release or Release Complete Message is detected. The taking of the xe2x80x9cSnap Shotxe2x80x9d or Zip Record may be triggered by any of the SS#7 message signal units (xe2x80x9cMSUxe2x80x9d), the most interesting being IAM, ACM, and ANM, or matching a called, calling or charge number or exceeding a time duration. Hence, the ZIP Record is available while the pertinent call is still in progress.